Outrim Void
Vilani Settlement
Imperial Era Settlements
The Rebellion
The New Era
Colloquial name for the region rimward of the Spinward Marches. It consists
of many independent worlds, small empires, and Aslan colonies. The Imperium's
civilian population, who know little about it, regard it with suspicion.
Corsairs and persons escaping Imperial justice find it a natural haven.
Historians believe many Outrim worlds were settled during the Rule of
Man. Some worlds maintain links to the Imperium or the Zhodani Consulate.
Others have been isolated from outside contact since they were settled.
The Zhodani name for Trojan Reach is Idrflanta, the Aslan name is
Hlaoirloahauri.
[Source: Traveller's Digest #20]
During its decline, a revolt led the First Imperium to abandon its scattered
settlements in Corridor Sector. These isolated outposts proved unable to
maintain trade in the face of Vargr piracy. Surviving records state that
several groups took their old, failing starships and left to find safer worlds
in Reft and Trojan Reach.
Evidence of the Vilani presence has been found on multiple worlds in these two
sectors. Most finds are dated between -2300 and -1700. Experts generally
attribute the occasional site with earlier or later estimated dates to
starship crews stranded by misjumps or some other such mishap.
Most of the Vilani settlements in Reft died out long before the advent of the
Third Imperium. The Trojan Reach colonies fared somewhat better, at least for
a while. In -2074, they formed a small state known today as the Sindalian
Empire. The Sindalian emperors ruled with iron fists, prompting a 50-year
period of civil dissent that culminated in a bout of bacteriological warfare.
The civilization of old Sindal (now Noricum) (2018) collapsed, and the
Empire itself fell in -1441.
[Source: Traveller's Digest #20]
"The General Development Company (GeDCo) was active in Trojan Reach and Reft and
dates to the early 600s when Empress Arbellatra resettled many nobles in the
Imperium's border regions. As these regions were undeveloped, many of these
nobles pooled their wealth for the establishment of an organization dedicated
to trade and increase of technology levels. The result was GeDCo which achieved
success through trade and the production of high-tech export goods."
[Excerpted from The Regency Sourcebook. See also Traveller's
Digest #20]
The political situation in Trojan Reach was one of utter turmoil. As news of
Strephon's assassination leaked across Imperial borders, the sector's
governments fell into disarray. Although few at first realized the full extent
of the danger, the Florian League and Glorious Empire immediately
readied their military forces.
The prime threat came not from the rapidly splintering Imperium, but rather
from the Aslan. The landless Ihatei of the trans-Rift colonies seized the
opportunity to expand. Backed by their fellows in the Hierate, they swept out
of Aslan territory into the vast no-man's-land of the Reach's central
subsectors. As they pressed onward into Imperial territory, lesser powers were
overrun.
By the end of 1117, most of the Florian worlds in Nora'a
subsector had fallen to Aslan invaders. Apparently, the Aslan are content
with these holdings, as they have taken little additional Florian territory in
the years since.
Sophontologists are quick to point out that this is atypical Aslan behavior, as
enough Ihatei remain landless to intrude upon other Florian worlds. Some explain
this strange behavior by pointing out that richer Imperial targets drew more
attention. Others, however, point to rumors of high-tech Florian weapons,
hastily put into production as the Ihatei first crossed the League borders.
Unlike the Florian League, which has so far weathered the Aslan expansion
without fatal injury, the Glorious Empire has been wholly overrun by the
Aorlakht. Minor clans began to encroach on Empire territory in 1117, and
Aslan settlers had taken over three worlds by the end of the following years.
The beginning of 1119 saw the Empire surrounded by Aslan land seekers, and a
full-fledged attack by the Aorlakht reabsorbed the splinter state.
Syoakh (1027), former capital of the Empire, put up a hard fight against
the Aorlakht forces and suffered for it. Substantial planetary bombardment by
nuclear weapons poisoned the Syoakh's atmosphere and drove this rival separatist
state into submission. Hierate honor was finally satisfied after 500 years.
With the Floriani and the Glorious Empire out of the way, only the smallest of
powers stood between the Aorlakht and the Imperium. Great Ihatei fleets set
out from Tlaiowaha, moving up through the Borderlands
along the old Aslan-Imperial Tradelane. The Aslan set upon Tobia subsector,
encroaching on the sector capital itself. In 1118, much of Tobia (3215)
was staked out by Aslan settlers. Sector duke Quinn committed suicide in the
wake of this disaster.
Tobia's fall was hastened by a lack of naval strength. At the outbreak of the
Rebellion, Alexander Quinn had sent many ships coreward to bolster Norris'
forces against the Vargr. This left him unprepared for the sudden incursion of
the Aslan land-seekers. A good leader, Quinn will nevertheless be remembered
more for his historical studies than his military prowess.
Quinn's successor, Duchess Sharik Arcadia of Gazulin (2708), was his
total opposite. Arcadia was a career Marine officer; her body of experience
rested with combat, not administration. Still, she quickly adjusted to her new
role.
Realizing that the time for open confrontation had passed, she deployed the
navy to hold the region's unoccupied territory. Then, taking an offensive tack,
she tried a new strategy: turning the Aslan against themselves. Within weeks of
her succession, she set plans in motion to exploit factional differences among
the Aorlakht clans. Evidently those plans worked, for the Aslan stopped their
quest for new, "unoccupied lands" on the remaining worlds of the region.
[Source: Traveller's Digest #20]
The arrival of Regency forces in 1131 was greeted with delirious joy by the
human inhabitants of the Trojan Reach after over a decade of Aslan occupation.
The Regency no longer particularly feared full-scale war with the Aslan Hierate,
and this freed it to act with a stoic confidence that it had not exhibited
before, and this new confidence struck fear into the Aslan, prompting them to
accept these bold acts and enter into honest negotiations. The Regency knew that
Virus was by far the greatest threat, and in any event, an Aslan-Regency war
would not be the last word - Virus would destroy whatever victors were left
behind. Besides, the Regency was essentially only restoring its antebellum
boundaries, reasserting control over worlds which had traditionally been
Imperial worlds until the late 1110s.
Many Aslan populations abandoned their former-Imperial conquests during this
period, and on many worlds the remainder were subject to varying degrees of
"justice" at the hands of their fomer subjects, which often involved simple
deportation.
Unfortunately, as a result of the Spinward States Accords, many Aslan occupied
worlds were allowed to remain in Aslan control within the Regency's borders as
fait accompli worlds. These worlds continue to be in various states of
unrest and dischord.
"When the Regency government established its Industrial Development Program it
borrowed heavily from the expertise and structure of GeDCo. Many GeDCo
executives became Regency officials, and portions of the GeDCo infrastructure
were taken over whole by the Regency government and became local offices of the
Industrial Development administration."
[Excerpted from The Regency Sourcebook.]
With the Regency now their ally against Virus, Aslan clans have had to stop
their coreward expansion. Instead, they have expanded spinward into the
Beyond sector where they have absorbed a great many "unclaimed" worlds.